


The Complications of Silence

by kreecherkai



Category: K-pop, VIXX
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-13
Updated: 2017-03-11
Packaged: 2018-07-14 19:39:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7187384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kreecherkai/pseuds/kreecherkai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Taekwoon is an agent in the FBI specialized in hunting down serial criminals.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Forced Outing

Taekwoon stretched, enjoying the way each of his vertebrae popped with ease. It had been a rough couple of months at the bureau; a serial killer obsessed with the little toes on a victim’s foot. Poor guy just couldn’t understand why when he cut them off his victim the toes lost their appeal.  
It was sad that they took so long to bring the guy in too. He was sloppy, leaving trails of himself all over every crime scene. But every time their team had thought they got close to him, the idiot managed to dance his way around them.  
A loud ring made its way through Taekwoon’s apartment, a quick assessment of his room showed that he had left a trail of clothes on his way in. With every move of a man with a hangover, Taekwoon made his way out to his living room, kicking aside stray socks and shirts as he went. He found his pants in a wrinkled heap on the floor, his pocket vibrating so violently that it seemed the tiny device would tear through.  
“Taekwoon?” His nose scrunched in annoyance. He had worked hard on this last case, countless overtime and man hours, he had been told to go home for a few days and rest. Why wasn’t he allotted time away from his nosy team leader too? “Taekwoon, if that’s you nod once!”  
‘Correction, Idiotic nosy team lead,’ Taekwoon could feel the collective sigh of the world.  
“Did you nod? Taekwoon? Hey! Are you there?”  
“Are you insane? Of course you won’t hear him nod! Would you just video call him like I told you to now?”  
‘Oh? It’s nice to know that the idiot isn’t alone…shouldn’t leave him too long by himself…lots of sharp objects.’  
“Oh,” A pause, “You’re right Wonshik! How silly of me!” There was a beep of the call ending and Taekwoon smiled slightly to himself. Leave it to Hakyeon to be an idiot when he’s not working. Any other time the man was a genius.  
Thirty seconds went by and Taekwoon was contemplating getting dressed when his phone trilled for the video call.  
“Taekwoon! There you are!” Hakyeon was much too cheery for having been working for the last five days on little to no sleep.  
Taekwoon glared at his phone screen, waiting for whatever reason the idiot called him for to happen.  
“Oh? Are you naked Taekwoon?” Hakyeon grinned into his camera like a fox. “Did you find yourself a girl?” A pale hand popped on screen to smack Hakyeon in the back of the head.  
“You’re a dunce, you know that?” Came Wonshik’s muffled voice.  
“What the hell was that for?” Hakyeon yelled at his partner.  
Taekwoon rolled his eyes as the two started to bicker….sometimes both popping in and out of the screen.  
‘Might as well get dressed.’ He thought to himself, shuffling back into his bed room and tossing his phone on the bed. They would call for him when they remembered; after all, it was the bureaus phone, it wasn’t like he was paying for the bill.

`~`~  
Taekwoon sat on his bed and stared at his phone screen. It had been thirty minutes, thirty minutes of listening to these two bickering and fighting, heading from one extreme to another. Ending most sentences with threats of kicking each other out of the car the next time they were at work, or making them walk from one far point to another. A continuous never ending cycle. He had clapped his hands, tapped on his speaker, even tried playing music to get them to realize the stupidity they were still displaying for him to hear. But nothing, he was now sitting against his pillows, fully showered, dressed and ready for the day; and debating on just hanging up and turning his phone off for the next few hours.  
“Oh! Taekwoon! I forgot, we wanted to know if you wanted to go to the zoo with us today?” Haekyeon said, his now mussed head coming into the view of the camera.  
‘Half an hour for this? Really?’ Taekwoon shook his head.  
“Aw, why not? Is there something else you were going to do today, or were you just gonna mope about at home?” Haekyeon eyed his camera…quite literally put the camera up to his eye. Taekwoon scrunched his nose and unfolded himself from his bed.  
“Hey! Don’t you walk away from me! Get back here!” Taekwoon let out a silent huff as he moved into his kitchen to cook himself breakfast. “So help me Taekwoon I will come over and ram your door down!”  
‘What kind of power does he have to echo through the hall like that?’ Taekwoon wondered as he pulled out a pan to cook in. ‘Poor Wonshik. It must be difficult for him, all the echoes that he must have to endure, and then to live with the guy too. It must be horrible.’ Still in thought Taekwoon opened his fridge to pull out something worth making into a meal. It had only been open a fraction of a second before he slammed it closed, gagging on air that was filled with a rancid smell.  
When he had finally caught his breath he stared at the fridge and then counted down on his fingers. 2…4…five weeks, five weeks since he had been home. Five weeks of old takeout and milk rotting in his fridge. ‘Damn it.’ He stalked back to his phone and looked straight at the screen where Haekyeon was still going on about all the things he would do to get access into Taekwoon’s apartment.  
“I’ll slip a dollar bill under your door and lure you out like the cartoon character you are!” Taekwoon rolled his eyes, and ended the call. He pulled up his messages and sent a quick one to the team leader.  
TO: Lead  
I’ll go if you take me to breakfast.  
TO: Mr. Mute  
YAY!

Taekwoon rolled his eyes and looked back out into the hallway, his nose still burning with the smell from the fridge.  
‘I guess it won’t do any good to leave it that way.’ He changed his shirt from his cable knit sweater to a torn work out shirt and moved to the kitchen for the cleaning supplies. ‘I’ll just clean before they get here.’

~V~  
Two hours later Taekwoon was walking out of a restaurant with Wonshik chatting, while a sad Haekyeon was looking into his empty wallet.  
“You two are monsters, you know that. You can’t be humans; you ate twice the amount of food.”  
“Oh hush, you’re pulling us out and to the zoo on our day off. The least you can do is buy us food.”  
Taekwoon nodded and raised his eyebrows, daring Haekyeon to say something against it.  
Haekyeon scrunched his nose, “Fine, but you two will buy your own stupid food at the zoo!” With that he stomped away.  
“He’s lucky I put up with him.” Wonshik snorted.  
Taekwoon clicked his tongue at him.  
“Okay, okay, he’s lucky I love him. Better?”  
Taekwoon looked at him blankly and gave a small nod, and walked off. Wonshik snickered and followed him. “You know; we should find you a person.” Wonshik elbowed him, “You know you could do with a warm bed in that lonely apartment.” Taekwoon didn’t even pause in his steps as the slapped the back of Wonshik’s head.

~V~  
Haekyeon was already bouncing around excited about a poster he saw for a new show in the zoo. They had just stepped into line to purchase their tickets. Wonshik was doing his best to keep the leader under control, but far from having an iron pan to smack him in the head with, he wasn’t really doing anything.  
“They poster said it was supposed to start later in the day. I hope we’ll be able to see it.”  
Taekwoon’s eyes widened a fracture. ‘Later in the day, like we are going to be here all day?’ He rubbed his temple. That was eight hours he hadn’t wanted to spend outside at all.  
“Yo, Taekwoon! What’s got you in a glum?” A hand patted the middle of his back in greeting and Taekwoon turned to give a pointed look to his partner Hyuk before giving another more pointed stare to Haekyeon.  
“What Taekwoon? What? You can’t tell me you don’t want to see the cute things too!” Haekyeon yelled, pointing at a poster to the side displaying cute baby animals. Taekwoon only rolled his eyes at him.  
“I’m sure he just meant that he wanted you to calm down and stop yelling. He probably hasn’t had enough coffee yet leader!” Hyuk was always quick to his rescue, that’s what made him a great partner.  
“He drank twelve cups at breakfast!” Haekyeon whined.  
‘And I’ll need another twelve to deal with you on my day off.’ Taekwoon thought with an eyebrow raised.  
“It’ll be okay, we’ll get him coffee when we get inside and then go look at the animals.” Hyuk said with a small hop. Taekwoon eyed him. “Sorry, I’m a little excited to hang out with you guys outside the office too. Sorry can’t help it.” Hyuk smiled, a wide grin and then hopped towards the team lead so they could giggle and gaggle together.  
“You know it means a lot to him. Thanks for coming.” Wonshik smiled. Taekwoon rolled his eyes, but nodded anyway. Soon they were next in line where they flashed their badges and gained their discounted tickets, even paying extra for the new show.


	2. Foxy Humor

Hongbin sighed, looking around each pen making sure all the animals were groomed and in good spirits. Today was the opening of the learning exhibit he had been put in charge of. It was also the first time the Director allowed him to be in charge of anything since the sting ray incident. He was now in charge of the animals that would be used for field trip education. A glorified petting zoo; but one he was in more control of.  
There was a small whimper and a scratching of wood. Hongbin let loose a small whine at Jun. The small fox had just been nursed back to health after being hit by a car. Hongbin had spent months with him. Teaching him how to trust humans, in all sense raising Jun like he would a pet. Their attachment to each other had gotten stronger in the past month as Jun became more and more active.   
“What’s wrong Junnie?” The small red fox whimpered and scratched at the wooden door that was blocking his escape. “No sir, no special treatment.” Another whine as the fox sat back giving the door a small paw. “No, the pouting act won’t work.” A bark. “Now that’s not fair! You can’t use that against me!” Hongbin stared at the small fox who was now preforming the only trick he ever bothered learning. Begging.  
“You might as well just let him out now Bin.” A blue shirt volunteer walked up balancing a large assortment of bowls.   
“Hush Gongchan.” Hongbin said staring at the fox still.  
“You’re gonna have him next to you most of the time anyway.”  
“Am not!”  
“His harness is on the hook next to you Mr. Not.” Gongchan snickered and walked away, bowls teetering slightly as he walked.   
“I hope you fall!” Hongbin called after him.  
“At least I got someone to pick me up! All you got is a fox!”  
Hongbin sneered after him, lifting the pin of the fox door. “Come on Jun, you can be my helper today.” The fox hopped up and spun in circles excitedly.  
~V~  
“Okay, you do this for every field trip. Only this time instead of kids and a teacher is a good fifty extra.” He took a breath trying to calm his beating heart. “No problem. Just like fifty people, not bad, that’s not bad at all.” Hongbin continued to mutter to himself, burying his nose into Jun’s soft fur. “You are a good contribution to this zoo, no yelling at little kids explain the two finger touching rule to avoid sting ray repeat. You got this. You got this.” The little fox squirmed, trying to worm his way back to the floor. “No sir! I need optimum cuddles right now!” The fox struggled more. “Fine, I am blaming you if I fail though!” Hongbin set the tiny fox on the floor, grabbing hold of the leash as he did so.   
“Hey Bin, this order isn’t going to work out. The otters aren’t playing nice right now.” Gongchan walked up with the clip board in on hand and an otter with a purple harness curled into his arm. Behind him a taller man walked up with a second otter in a red harness, keeping a careful distance away from Gongchan.  
“Were they fed?” Hongbin asked, coming closer to look at the first otter in Gongchan’s arms.  
“Yeah, I don’t know what’s gotten into them. They never fight.”  
“I still think you put the wrong color harness on them.”  
“Shut up Ken.”  
Hongbin walked around to where Ken was standing, a pout forming on his mouth. Then looked back at Gongchan before whispering, “How mad will he be if he realizes you’re right?”  
“I’ll be staying at your place for a few days.” Hongbin nodded.  
“Switch them when he’s not around then.” Hongbin winked and then more loudly, “we’ll move them to after the lion cubs, hopefully by then they will sort their issue out themselves.”  
“Awesome. Ok now, how are you?” Gongchan asked scratching down the otter’s back as Ken slipped off with the other one.  
“What do you mean?” Hongbin asked, going through his mental check list again.  
“Well its thirty minutes to show time and you don’t have Jun next to you.”  
“What are you talking about?” Hongbin pulled up the leash, a sinking feeling forming as it stayed slack. He looked down at his feet, thinking that maybe the fox had just been sitting really close to him, but he was met with nothing, but an unclipped leash.  
“Jun! Fuck! Close all the doors, if he is back here he has to be in one of the rooms, start searching them one by one, but make sure to keep the doors closed!” The leash swung in his limp hand as he shouted orders down the hallway. The slack in it reminding him of a noose every moment his little friend wasn’t there. “You little devil, where the Hell are you?”  
~V~

Taekwoon took his seat next to the excited team leader. Face a perfect mask of boredom. Haekyeon was pulling on a smiling Hyuk’s arm, pointed excitedly to the pictures in the pamphlet they were offered when they first entered the arena.   
“This is going to be so cute!” Haekyeon said reading the descriptions of every animal out loud. “I always wanted the zoo to come to my school so I could learn about the animals, but my school never allowed it. It’s pretty cool to be able to learn and touch some!” Hyuk smiled at the team leader’s excitement.  
Taekwoon let out a silent tired sigh. He was excited for the baby animals too, but he was a lot more contained than his FBI counterparts. He leaned back in the stadium seating, closing his eyes for a brief moment as he listened to the ramblings going on around him.  
There was a small weight that first tapped him, he played it off as Wonshik wanting his attention, before a larger weight plopped into his lap, spinning in circles before settling into a small ball. Taekwoon peeked open one eye, surprised to find a red ball of cur curled on him.  
“Taekwoon don’t move! You don’t know if it has rabies.”  
“Yes because an animal with rabies just finds a random stranger to lay down on. Really Haekyeon?” Wonshik said.  
“You can’t predict animals Wonshik!” Taekwoon ignored them as they continued to bicker. He wrapped a protective arm around the small bundle as he sat up. Ears perked up in surprise at the movement before pressing back down to its head as it fell back asleep. Tentatively he ran his fingers across the red fur, noticing the black harness.   
‘Must be one of the show animals.’ Taekwoon nodded to himself, lifting the tiny animal to his chest before standing. Ignoring his still arguing friends as he walked towards the side of the stage. Hopefully there would be someone to help him there.  
Taekwoon used his free arm as he pulled back the curtain that he assumed would lead him back stage. The little fox, having deciding what he was doing was more interesting was poking his nose over his arm, staring at his surroundings as Taekwoon moved into a dark hallway.  
Taekwoon pounded his arm against a wall near him, hoping the noise would gather the attention of one of the many workers he had seen ambling about. His nose scrunched in annoyance as the bang echoed down the hallway, but no one came to investigate the sound.  
‘Maybe a little further in.’ He sniffed and stepped forward slowly.  
A door opened slightly further down the hall, the small sliver of light showing one person’s shadow as a voice called out. “Hongbin did you check the hallway by the stage?”   
Another door across from that one opened a sliver as well and a small ‘ok’ sounded before it opened a little wider, a lean shadow quickly moving out before slamming the door shut behind him. The shadow then began barreling down the hallway.  
“Jun come here you damn fox!” Taekwoon glanced down at the small bundle, eyes having adjusted to the darkness, he could see the small fox head peaking over his arm, ears perked up, but the fox made no move to get down.  
Taekwoon smiled slightly as the dark shadow stalked pass him, head tilted down as if trying to make out for anything on the floor instead of in front of him.  
“Jun I am so close to using you as a hat!”  
Taekwoon felt the fox bury his nose into the crook of his elbow and gave a small muffled bark.  
“Ah ha!” The man had stopped, standing very still as he listened for another clue as to where the fox was. “Come here! You tiny brat!” Then much to Taekwoon’s amusement, the shadow knelt on the floor and began crawling along the hallway.  
With only what Taekwoon could assume to be animal amusement, the little fox was once again peeking over his elbow. The fox, Jun as he now knew him, let loose yet another small bark. Loud enough to make the man turn, continuing to crawl along the floor, but now heading back towards Taekwoon.  
‘This is bordering on hilarity.’ Taekwoon smiled as he stood still, watching the shadow now sweeping his arms across the hallway. Jun’s head popped up and down as the man got closer, finally letting out a loud bark and the shadow was close to Taekwoon’s feet.  
“Ah ha! I got you!” Long fingers gently wrapped around his ankle as a head ran into his shin. “Ow.” Taekwoon lifted an eyebrow as the man started to pat up his leg.  
“Um, my apologies, but…”  
“Bin!” There was a click and then the hallway lights flickered on. “Why are you searching in the dark?”  
Taekwoon blinked at the blinding light lifting his arm to rub at his eyes.   
“Un.” The man on the floor was sitting back on his heels, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand. His other hand still resting on Taekwoon’s thigh. The brief confusion had Taekwoon staring into the gorgeous wide eyes of a short haired man.  
The little fox popped his head up and gave a happy bark to break the tension. The man blinked and blushed, hastily pulling his hand from Taekwoon’s thigh as he stood. “Jun!” The man reached for the fox and carefully cuddled him. “Don’t you dare ever scare me like that again! I was losing my mind!”   
“And then some.” Taekwoon looked around at a blue shirted man, the wide smile reminding him very much like a puppy. “Hello, my name is Gongchan, I’m one of the volunteers here. The, um loving fox owner, is Hongbin. Please forgive him, he usually has better manners. He runs this whole program.” Taekwoon looked over at the brown haired man, burrowing his nose into the fox’s soft fur. “And you are?”  
Taekwoon’s eyes went wide. ‘Shit.’


	3. Self-Important Panic

Under the wide eyed stares of both Gongchan and Hongbin; Taekwoon patted down his person in search for his wallet; hastily pulling it out to show his identification to first Gongchan and then Hongbin.  
“FBI?” Gongchan asked.  
Taekwoon’s eyes widened and looked back at his wallet to realize he had shown the wrong side of the fold.   
“Sir, I don’t know what you think we did wrong, but I assure you we received all these animals legally.”   
Taekwoon shook his head, lifting his hand with it for added effort. He flipped his wallet, his identification showing this time instead of his badge.  
“Mr. Jung?” Hongbin asked him. Taekwoon nodded, almost sighing with relief. “Again sir, I assure you…” Taekwoon shook his head violently again, pressing his fingers to his forehead in exasperation.  
“Taekwoon are you back here?” Hyuk’s head popped around the curtain, quizzical look on his face when he beheld his partner standing between two zoo workers looking thoroughly panicked. Still Taekwoon had never felt more relieved to see his partner. And he had been held captive a number of times. He hopped his sharp look at him was enough for Hyuk to know he needed his help.  
“Are you with him sir?” Hongbin asked Hyuk.   
“Yeah, we work together.” Hyuk smiled coming closer.  
“Good, look we are trying to tell him that we have done nothing wrong.” Hyuk’s eyes swerved to him, quizzical eyebrow high. Hongbin still explaining to him that they had gotten the animals through a preserve and it was perfectly legal, not noticing that Hyuk had stopped listening to him.  
‘What’s going on Taekwoon?’ He signed to him.  
Taekwoon deflated with relief. ‘I accidently showed them the wrong side of my wallet when they asked for my name. Now they think that they’re in trouble and I panicked before trying to see if they knew sign language.’  
‘Really Taekwoon?’  
‘Look, it wasn’t my plan, I just wanted to give the fox back.’  
‘And you didn’t expect them to talk to you?’  
‘I never expected them to ask questions. A thank you, yes, but not asking for my name or anything.’  
‘What do I get for helping you?’  
‘A good ass whooping for expecting to get anything.’  
Hyuk scoffed at him, cutting Hongbin off who was still in mid rant of where each animal had come from, eyes closed.  
“Sir, honestly we don’t think you are doing anything wrong.” Hyuk smiled at Hongbin.  
“Then why would the FBI be here?” Gongchan asked, arms crossed.  
“It’s is a simple misunderstanding. We are here for the show, the fox curled up in my partner’s lap and he came to return it. He didn’t expect you guys to bother asking for his name, so he didn’t let any of us know he was leaving.” Hyuk gave a small smile. “He showed you his badge by mistake.”  
“He could have just told us his name; he didn’t have to flash his badge like some self-important weirdo.” Hongbin sighed.  
Taekwoon was fuming, he was used to being spoken about like he wasn’t there, that was fine. But this Hongbin fellow didn’t even know him.   
“Um, he can’t talk sir.” Hyuk rubbed the back of his neck, seeing Taekwoon’s hard stare at the fox handler. Taekwoon shook his head, he was done with this. He shoved pass Hongbin and Hyuk and left the hallway. He would watch the show and then he was going home, this was enough socializing to get him out of at least the next three outings.

~V~  
Hongbin watched the tall man slip by the curtain, bottom lip pulled between his teeth.  
“Don’t worry about it sir. He’s used to being misunderstood a lot.” The man’s partner smiled at him and then gave him a thumbs up. “The rest of the team are super excited for the show, good luck!” Hyuk then left, following the same path as the tall, silent stranger.  
“Wow, that must be difficult.”  
“What must be difficult?”  
“Being law enforcement and not being able to speak.” Gongchan snickered. “Isn’t it common in movies for the cop to yell at the criminal to stop?”  
“That’s not very nice Gongchan.”  
“Well you weren’t very nice either.”  
Hongbin opened his mouth in rebuttal but he instead did a very good imitation of a fish out of water as the last thing he said before Mr. Jung left played through his head. There was a small whimper from his arms where Jun was looking up at him and Hongbin couldn’t help but bury his head into the fox’s fur in shame.   
“Well his partner did say he gets misunderstood a lot. He probably wasn’t that angry.”  
“I called him a self-important weirdo, Gongchan. I said that about a cop who brought Jun back to me, after I practically feel him up in a hallway. I called him a weirdo.” Hongbin pouted.  
“Bin, you still have a show to do. Dwell on your mistakes later, go make people happy to see baby animals now.” Gongchan patted his shoulder and sauntered off, letting the rest of the crew know that Jun had been returned and they can resume getting the rest of the animals prepared for the show.  
“I’m such a jerk Jun.” Hongbin pouted, glancing back at the curtain before he continued down the hallway. 

~V~

“And then he panicked and showed them the wrong side of his wallet.”  
“He flashed his badge?” There was cackling laughter. “Oh dear lord I wish I had been there to see it.”  
Taekwoon huffed, leaning once again against the stadium seating as they waited for the show to begin. Fuming as Hyuk recounted his tale behind the curtain.  
“Wait, it wasn’t even the best part!” Hyuk giggled and leaned closer to Haekyeon. “The caretaker of the animals called Taekwoon a self-important weirdo!” Wonshik, Haekyeon and Hyuk proceeded to break down into fits of loud laughter drawing the attention of the patrons around them. Taekwoon was fed up, he reached through his team lead and smacked Hyuk hard upside the head. “Ow! Taekwoon!”  
Taekwoon shrugged, ignoring Hyuk’s small threat of never translating for him again. They went back to whispering about which animals they were excited to see. Taekwoon closed his eyes, his mind replaying a certain scene. Short brown hair and big eyes with his warm hand on his thigh.   
Taekwoon’s eyes popped open, sitting forward quickly, trying to rid his mind of the image.   
“Ladies and Gentleman! Please direct your attention to the front of the stage as the critter crew presents: Tiny Predators!” Cheers took place all around the small compound as there was a small procession of all the animals they would be seeing today and learning about throughout the show. Taekwoon tried not to focus too hard on the man leading the procession. Hongbin was leading the stage with a small bear cub tumbling at his side, adorable for everyone paying attention as Hongbin would walk a little, the bear would tumble into his legs, and then look up at Hongbin as if to say ‘what?’ 

~V~

Hongbin smiled and Kodi the bear cub kept up with his tumbles, he was probably one the more trained of the cubs. Hongbin lead the procession around, smiling at all the kids that were as close to the wall as they could possibly be, all pointing and yelling over their shoulder at parents that were smiling exhaustedly. On the trip back to the backstage area Hongbin noticed him. Taekwoon was sitting close to the wall, and what looked like three adult children next to him all pointing excitedly at the stage and yelling to each other.   
‘That must be the rest of his co-workers.’ Hongbin thought, watching Taekwoon as he followed the stage procession. Kodi tumbled a little too far ahead of him, causing the small cub to be extremely confused when he went to chase after his feet, only to not find them where he thought they would be. It took just a moment before Kodi looked behind him, running excitedly on paws just slightly too big for him towards Hongbin’s feet. There was a brief moment, when Hongbin smiled to the crowd that he glimpsed something. Taekwoon, the stoic silent man, was smiling. Eyes lit up as Kodi tumbled into Hongbin’s foot.   
Hongbin continued on, shell shocked, he was pretty sure there was an awe expression on his stage cause as he passed Gongchan with a hopping otter he was given a questioning look. ‘Stunning,’ his brain supplied. That smile was stunning, it was very small, but…Hongbin blinked as he lifted Kodi to begin the program; that had to have been the most beautiful smile he had ever seen. All the other workers continuing behind the stage.  
“Thank you everyone! We here at the zoo are happy to be able to put this program on for you! I’m Hongbin, the main caretaker of all the animals you will meet today. And this is Kodi!” Hongbin lifted the black bear cub in his arms. “Now Kodi is a black bear cub…” Hongbin smiled as the kids pressed closer to the wall.   
~V~  
“That was awesome!” Haekyeon smiled as he bounced around Wonshik. “I never knew all those facts! And getting to touch the otter! My little heart!”  
“Are you five Haekyeon?” Wonshik grumbled as his arm was grabbed.  
“You hush; you were just as excited when he came by with the little wolf cub.”  
“At least wolves are cooler.”  
“But otters cuddle!”  
“Of course you pick the one animal that likes to cuddle.”  
“Did you not listen to Hongbin? As baby’s lots of animals like to cuddle. Then when they’re adults they still cuddle for warmth.” Hyuk said with a finger in the air, his small smug smirk had Taekwoon snorting.   
“Don’t you dare pretend you didn’t like watching the baby animals Taekwoon!” Haekyeon slapped his shoulder.  
‘Not pretending, they were cute. Now if you excuse me, I’m going home.’ Taekwoon waved good bye to emphasize his want to leave.  
“Now hold on a minute, we still need to see the rest of the zoo!” Haekyeon frowned.  
“He’s probably tired Leader.” Hyuk smiled, trying alleviate the situation. “This is the longest he’s been out for a while.”   
“Don’t you dare go cover for him.” Haekyeon placed his hands on his hips and stared up at Taekwoon.  
‘I’m going home Haekyeon.’ Taekwoon signed.  
“No, you are staying at least till after lunch.” Haekyeon stomped his foot. Taekwoon held in a snort as Wonshik slapped his forehead at the sight.  
‘I’m not hungry.’  
“Oh no sir, don’t you dare lie to me.” Taekwoon rolled his eyes. “Coffee, I will buy you coffee, right now.” Taekwoon raised his eyebrow at the team leader. “I will buy you coffee all day if I have to!” Haekyeon sighed. “Please Taekwoon, I don’t like when you lock yourself away from the world. Just for today and I will leave you alone for the rest of the week.”   
Taekwoon stared at his pouting team leader, noticing Wonshik had taken a step closer, hand rubbing up and down the leaders back.  
‘Fine, but you owe me.’ Haekyeon smiled at him, clapping out of happiness.  
“Alright, let’s go to the Africa section. We can see the lions!” Haekyeon bounded away, happy with Hyuk following at a skipping pace.  
“Thanks Taekwoon.” Wonshik said, giving the taller man a smile. Taekwoon nodded, keeping his face carefully blank. “He really does worry about you, you know.” Taekwoon nodded again. “We all kind of worry about you.” Taekwoon nodded again. “You stopped listening to me haven’t you?” Taekwoon was half way through a nod before he glared at Wonshik. “Well, let’s go see some lions so I can watch my boyfriend gush over how cool they all look.” Wonshik started pulling on Taekwoon’s arm, letting go as Taekwoon rolled his eyes and took his own steps.  
“Mr. Jung!” Taekwoon stopped, looking back over his shoulder and nearly gagging in surprise. He grabbed Wonshik by the sleeve of his jacket as Hongbin waved and ran over to them. “Mr. Jung, I’m happy I could catch you. Do you mind if we talk really quick?”


	4. Rambling Insults

“Whew, sorry, I ran from the stage.” Hongbin took a few deep breaths, his bangs falling into his eyes. Taekwoon’s grip on Wonshik sleeve tightened. “Okay, sorry, I’m Hongbin. Hello nice to meet you.” Hongbin held his hand out to Taekwoon. Taekwoon blinked at the pale hand.  


“Sorry, forgive him; he has trouble being human sometimes. His wires must be crossed.” Wonshik smiled as he slapped his hand on Taekwoon’s back. “I’m Wonshik, I work with him.”  


“Yes, hello! I’m sorry. Hongbin.” Taekwoon watched as they shook hands, blinking in confusion. “I really wanted to apologize and introduce myself better to Mr. Jung. I was really a mess earlier when I met him.”  


“Ah, well then. You do know he doesn’t talk right?” Taekwoon rolled his eyes.  


“Yes, but I also work with Apes, I’m sure I can manage.” Taekwoon raised his eyebrow at Hongbin who flushed. “Not that he’s an ape. I mean,” he turned so he was looking at Taekwoon. “Not that you’re an ape. What I meant was that I teach Apes, and I have a good understanding of sign language.”  


Wonshik was snickering. “Well then, I will leave him in your capable hands. Taekwoon you know where we will be.” He yanked his arm away from Taekwoon, ignoring Taekwoon’s glare and smiling at Hongbin. “It was a pleasure to meet you Hongbin.”  


“You as well.”  


Betrayal. Absolute betrayal, Taekwoon thought as he watched Wonshik walk further and further away. This was worse than being left in the field to die. This was worse than being shot by friendly fire. Wonshik didn’t even glance at him as he skipped down the road. Taekwoon glared after him for a bit longer, contemplating all the ways to get back at his teammate for this when Hongbin cleared his throat next to him.  


“Sorry, Mr. Jung. I’m sure you wanted to spend time with your friends, but I really wanted to apologize for my behavior earlier.” Taekwoon stared at the man in front of him. The zookeeper was playing with his fingers as he spoke, not bothering to look up at Taekwoon. _‘Cute.’_ Taekwoon thought, then pursed his lips, it had been a long time since he thought that way about anyone. Taekwoon took another look at the man in front of him. Tall, boyish, handsome, dimples. Yeah if he had ever had a type that summed up all the things in appearance that he found interesting.  


“Anyway, I’m sure you didn’t need to hear about any of that. But I really wanted to say I’m sorry, though I’m sure I’ve said that a bunch now.” Hongbin rubbed at the back of his neck nervously. “Um, and I wanted to, um.” Those wide brown eyes finally looked up at him; the hand dropped from the back of his neck as Hongbin took a deep breath and then whispered something.  


Taekwoon leaned forward, not sure if Hongbin had said anything or if he was still doing breathing exercises. He lifted his hands and pointed to his ear, hopefully displaying enough confusion that he hadn’t heard.  


Hongbin stared at him for a moment before a blush rose on his cheeks. “I wanted to know if you would like to have dinner with me.” 

~V~  


Hongbin was dazed. That had to be the correct word. He felt like a zombie, probably looked like one too. He didn’t make any effort to close his mouth or try to bend his knee more, leaving him in a dragging state as he made his way back to the pens where he had run from.  


“So what happened?” Gongchan asked, holding a still playful wolf cub in his arms.  


“I think I made a mistake.”  


“In what? Apologizing?”  


“In life.” Gongchan huffed at his cryptic answer, pulling his finger away from the teething cub.  


“What? Did he not accept it? I mean you did call him a weirdo after all.”  


“It doesn’t help that as I was apologizing I might have called him an ape.” Gongchan snorted before he broke out into full laughter, the pup in his arms barking as he was jostled.  


“Please tell me you didn’t.”  


“I didn’t mean to; I was trying to explain why I know sign language.”  


“And you called him an ape?” Hongbin groaned, moving over to Jun’s pen.  


“I mentioned that I taught apes and that I could manage.”  


“Oh my god, please tell me you didn’t.” Gongchan started in another fit of giggles.  


“I did,” Hongbin gathered the fox into his arms, cuddling him close. “That’s not even the worst of it Gongchan.”  


“Why, did you throw poop at him or something?”  


“No! Why would I do that?”  


“To appeal to his ape like behavior.”  


“Please stop.”  


“Sorry, I promise no more.” Gongchan grinned at him.  


“I asked him out to dinner.” Hongbin groaned.  


“What?”  


“He was just standing there, and I couldn’t help but remember the smile he had when he saw Kodi on stage, or how handsome he was standing in the hallway holding Jun.” Hongbin sighed. “Before I thought he was shutting us down, I thought he was the knight in shining armor that I always wanted.”  


Gongchan scoffed. “Please.”  


“Honestly, he’s so handsome, stoic face and all.” Hongbin smiled as he remembered Taekwoon’s smile.  


“So what did he say?” Gongchan asked. Hongbin blinked and looked over at Gongchan.  


“Um, he can’t talk Gongchan.”  


“No, I meant about the question ya dolt.”  


“Oh!” Jun barked at him for being loud. “He agreed. I’m gonna text him later to see when he’s free.” Hongbin smiled.  


“Look at you insulting people and getting dates out of it. Beautiful people like you make me sick.”  


“Shut up Gongchan, if I remember you punched Ken in the face when you first met because you thought he was peeping through your window. And he still asked you out.”  


“That’s neither here nor there.” Gongchan said airily as he walked away with the wolf cub.  


“Hey!” Hongbin yelled, getting another bark from Jun. “Sorry Junnie, did you see him sneak out of our conversation?” Hongbin pouted receiving a paw to his cheek as Jun stared at him. “Okay. Let me get everyone else back to their pens and we will go home.” Hongbin smiled. “I bet you’re hungry.” The happy bark he received made him grin.  
~V~  


“So you going to tell me what he said?” Wonshik nudged him with an elbow. “Oh come on! It couldn’t have been that bad.” Taekwoon pointedly ignored the elbow, staring out into the paddock where the young giraffes were running back and forth, playing around one of the older ones.  


“Look, we can feed them!” Haekyeon hopped excitedly over to them grabbing Wonshik before hopping away.  


“We aren’t done Taekwoon!” Wonshik grumbled as he allowed Haekyeon to pull him away. Hyuk slid up next to him with a small smile.  


“So I take it that it was a good conversation since you didn’t just head straight home.” Taekwoon gave his partner a side glance, his mind flashing to red cheeks and dimples for a brief moment before he nodded. “Nice.”  


Nice indeed. Taekwoon continued to watch the young giraffes as he thought back to his chat with Hongbin earlier.  


_“It’s not a date or anything, so it’s really no big deal. We could just get coffee too. That would be ok. Look, I really just want to apologize.” Hongbin hadn’t looked up; he just stared at his shoes, rubbing the back of his neck. It was cute, Taekwoon thought. There was even a blush rising on Hongbin’s cheeks as he rambled._  


_‘I wonder if he will notice that I’ve been nodding since he asked me.’ Taekwoon stifled a smile as he heard the word coffee again. ‘Really hard to tell him yes if he doesn’t look up.’ Taekwoon put his hands in his pockets and rocked back and forth on his heels, waiting for Hongbin to look up. ‘I wonder if Haekyeon will let me leave after the zoo, hopefully he doesn’t have some sort of plan for dinner.’ Taekwoon frowned. ‘I don’t understand what he’s so worried about anyway. It’s not like I’m always at home, I’m in the office a lot.’_  


_“And I’m sorry, I must be rambling.” Hongbin looked up at him. “But really, I would like to pay for a meal of some sort as an apology for being an ass.” Hongbin gave him a small grimace as he looked at him. “I can understand if you don’t want to.”_  


_Taekwoon nodded at Hongbin._  


_“Right, of course you wouldn’t want to. Look I’m sorry to have…” Taekwoon grabbed Hongbin’s arm as he had started backing away from him._  


_‘I meant yes I would go with you.’ Taekwoon signed to him._  


_“Oh.” Hongbin blinked at him before pulling a full smile, “great, okay. Um, can I have your number then?” Hongbin bit his lip, holding out his phone to Taekwoon to grab._


End file.
